Darker Places
by Saint River 2.0
Summary: Mariko had always lived in darkness and isolation. She lived in anger at the life she has. For a girl like her, she couldn't be blamed for mentally calling out for someone to help and to set her free from her prison in the Diclonius Research Facility. Eventually, someone answered her calls and gave her a glimpse of true darkness and isolation.
1. A Dream of Blackness

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Elfen Lied. Believe me, if I did, all of them would have had full names.**

**A/N 1:** This chapter by itself will not make much sense. It's been in my mind for quite sometime now so I am posting this to simply just to get it out of my system. At the very least, if I continue this, it will only be three to five chapters long. This was written within a span of two hours. Grammatical errors were kept to minimum.

**A/N 2: **This fic is inspired by the Diclonius Kings of Fanfiction:

1) Michael/Samael Mordare by Numbnut10

2) Alex/Zale by JRB95

3) Kenshin (Number 28) by moviefan-92

4) Tomo (Number 86) by ElfenLied619

5) Yoshitora (Number 66) by Beowulf Caverias

I hope the original authors won't get mad at me for this.

So enjoy my first Elfen Lied fic.

* * *

Her name is Kurama Mariko. Daughter of Chief Kurama. Diclonius number 35. Ever since she was born, she was locked in a cage of pure isolation and darkness. She was lonely and the loneliness, the silence, the darkness was slowly eating her. It was starting to drive her insane. But most prominently, it made her angry.

"Hello, Mariko." Then there was that voice. The voice that that lady scientist named Saito. She was the only person who spoke to her. The only person who came close to giving her some semblance of company and family. "How are you today?"

'_Let me out_!' Screamed Mariko's mind but her lips spoke "I'm fine today, mother." Now Saito was not really her mother. Mariko knew that for certain. Mariko had nothing against her. Heck, Mariko concluded that the woman genuinely loved her but when the opportunity presented itself, she was going to kill her. A part of Mariko hoped that if she ever escaped, she wouldn't encounter her on the way out. She felt she owed the woman that much.

Mariko went on to have her typical conversation with Saito. For the rest of the day up until the next, Mariko would spend her time alone. In that time, Mariko would think about her real mother. She never knew her and often wondered what she was like. Then she thought of her father. Her feelings for him were mixed. She hated him for leaving her there, for abandoning her, for allowing those people to put bombs inside her, for allowing those people to restrain her. She wanted nothing more than to find and slowly kill him.

Yet, she wanted him to take care of her. She wanted him to love her and take her away from all the pain and misery. She wanted him and her to be family as they should be. But thinking on the 'what could have been' made her all the angrier. She wanted to vent out her rage so bad.

He never, not once, even visited her. Mariko would cry. She would cry silently. She was so angry at the way her life has been and the way it is. And more often than not, Mariko would wish for someone to get her out and bring her to the outside. But after some time, she knew crying was useless. But she was still very mad. She kept silently and mentally calling out for someone to free her.

'_SOMEONE, GET ME OUT OF HERE!'_ She yelled in her mind with all her anger. She had done this many times before. She had done this too many times to count. She had done this for as long as she could remember. She had done this for a long time.

On one strange occasion, she could have sworn she heard a voice in her head reply _"Are you calling out to me?"_ The voice differed from her own but number 35 dismissed it and thought of it as a delusion caused by the lack of proper food.

She felt weak. The food they gave her wasn't enough to properly nourish her. Mariko did not want many things. All she needed were the simple things in life. She always felt hungry even she regularly fed.

Mariko, with nothing better to do, decided to sleep. She would often dream of her life with her parents if she wasn't a Diclonius. Those were good dreams. Those were the dreams that made her smile as she slept. Her sleep and dreams were an escape for the harsh reality she lived and arguably kept her sane. She closed her eyes and drifted away into sleep, expecting pleasant dreams.

But this time, her dream was different. This dream was, in a way, no different than her state when she was awake.

It was a world of pure blackness. There was no light of any kind or intensity. If a person were to enter this dark realm, he would see nothing for there was absolutely no light for their eyes to adjust to. It was like having their eyes closed. It was almost like the same darkness Mariko was subjected to. But Mariko always had a little bit of light. Here, it was just pitch black.

The realm was a vast empty space which was devoid of anything. No ground. No sound. No air. Nothing. It was nothing more than pure, absolute and total darkness. The silence was deafening, maddening even. Yet in spite of that, it wasn't completely empty.

"Huh? Where am I? What is this place?" Mariko had become an occupant.

There was no light yet in spite of that, she started to be able to see through the emptiness and saw just how vast the emptiness was. It stretched out as far as her eyes could see. Mariko immediately discovered she was not restrained and not contained by some high-tech prison. A big difference from her prison.

She also felt a little strong. She was standing straight. She did not feel the weakness of her legs. She did not see the need to exert effort into standing. She did not feel like she was about to collapse. Most of all, she did not feel, even in the slightest, hungry.

She looked around instinctively. She looked left, right, front and back. And she found nothing. She looked up and found nothing. Then she looked down. Only then did she realize that indeed she was standing but there was no floor or even ground beneath her feet. There was nothing below her; just pure darkness.

She bent down to feel if there truly was some sort of 'ground'. She tried to feel with her fingers yet there was nothing. There was nothing stopping her fingers from going further down from where her feet were firmly planted. Her fingers had touched nothing. Yet she could feel as though she was definitely standing on something. She had to be otherwise she'd be falling for all eternity. But that wasn't the case. She was just standing in darkness.

"Hello! Anyone! Is anyone there?! Hello!" She called out but there wasn't even an echo. Unsurprisingly, no one answered.

She quickly realized that she will continue to find nothing if she remained there. So she run despite having no clear path or known destination. She just needed to run and to find something, anything; anything other than the pure dark emptiness.

She ran and ran. Changing direction every now and then. Eventually, after still finding nothing, she got tired and dropped to her knees and hands. Mariko felt… afraid. Her only source of comfort was the fact that it was just a dream. She knew it was because she would never have the strength to stand up straight let alone ran for a prolonged period of time.

But even for a dream, this was scarier than her real life situation. She was tired and completely lonely here. The only sound she heard were her gasps for breath and her thoughts. She wanted nothing more than to wake up. In her exhaustion, she slumped down to the darkness's equivalent of the ground.

"Come on. Wake up. Wake up." She told herself. And she waited. And the wait felt like hours. The wait made her even more tired yet she did not feel sleepy at all. She surmised it was because she was already asleep. A frightening thought came to her mind. What if she would never wake up and she would spend the rest of her life in this vast darkness. She would be all alone.

Then something had caught her attention. A sound. It was a sound she was not familiar with due to her isolation from the world. It was the sound of clothes being blown by the wind. It may not have been much but in a place of nothingness, anything was a possible indicator of the presence of someone or something.

"W-w-who's there?" She whispered. There was no response. "WHO'S THERE!?" She yelled out but once again, there wasn't even an echo. She unleashed her long Vectors at all directions but they were met with nothing.

Then she heard a voice whisper. Mariko recognized that voice. It was the same voice she heard that one time. The whispering voice was chilling enough but what made it more chilling was that it sounded so close. So close, so near. It was as if whoever it was who spoke to her was right beside… her ear. No, it sounded like it spoke to both of her ears.

"Are you the one who has been calling me?"

Instinctively, she unleashed her Vectors again "Who are you?!" She yelled at no one and still there was no one.

The whispering voice spoke again "Oh! So you're a Horned-One. I have not met any of your kind for quite… some… time."

Mariko made her Vectors go wild. Aimlessly and randomly trying to slash, hack, rip, maim, impale or shred anything that it could reach.

"What a dangerous portal I found." The voice did not sound threatened or worried or amused. It did not indicate any emotion. It was simply giving a statement.

"Portal?" Mariko genuinely did not know the meaning of the word and before anything else could be said, she saw a light. It was not bright but just a simple glimmer. But that was enough.

"You're waking up." True to its word, she did wake up.

And never before in her short life has Mariko ever felt so tired. The typical solution would be to sleep again but she did not want to enter that nightmare a second time. No way. Not after she just woke up from it.

The young girl did not understand any of it. It had all felt so real. It almost made her consider her real life state to be better. No one would blame her for that. At least in the real world, she had Saito to talk to and there was light. The little diclonius took a deep breath to calm herself down.

Mariko had once overheard a scientist and guard talking. One of them had said "Things could be worse." Mariko never gave it any thought. Until now that is. That darkness was definitely worse but it was strange and ironic that it was her dream which was worse than reality. Well regardless, Mariko wished she would never dream of that dark place again.

Then she remembered the voice. Thinking about it, it sounded like a child, a boy. "Just who was that?" Mariko asked herself "Was it just my imagination? My dream?"

"What was your dream?" It was Saito again speaking through the intercom.

Mariko decided not to ponder on her dream anymore. It wasn't important to her. At least, not at this moment.

"I just had a weird dream that's all." Mariko answered

"Would like to talk about it?"

Mariko pondered that question. A second later, she concluded it was better to let it out.

"Okay. I dreamed I was in a place. It was a dar-"

"_Lie to her"_ there it was. That whispering voice from her dream. It came from her mind but it was definitely not her own mental voice telling her to lie to Saito. A different voice had ordered her to lie about her dream. Something told her she should follow what the voice ordered

"_Who are you?"_ Mariko mentally asked a little worried. She waited for a response that was never given.

"Mariko? Is there something wrong? You stopped at mid-sentence."

Mariko snapped out her thoughts. "Oh nothing. It's just that, it seemed very real. I changed my mind. I think I'll just keep it to myself."

Saito was never the pushy scientist "Okay, dear, but if you ever want to talk about it, I'm willing to listen." Saito shut off the intercom

Mariko sighed and relaxed. She then spent the rest of the day in complete silence. Truly no different than the dark world she dreamt of. This left Mariko to wonder again if that was better than her real situation. At least, there she was free to walk and had the strength to run.

'NO! That dark place is worse! At least here, I am not alone' She smiled sadly. She longed to walk free and run as she pleased.

"_Soon"_ she heard the voice again. But this time, instead of being a voice in her head, it sounded it had whispered directly to her ears again.

* * *

Somewhere in that vast nothingness was a figure. It was curled up in a fetal position with its eyes closed shut. Its hair being blown softly by none existent wind. It kept still as it slowly and gently floated in its realm of nothingness. It was slowly rotating left and right, up and down. It floated without a care in the world. But for a moment, it stopped moving and it slightly opened its eyes.

"So she is the one who has been calling out to me." he whispered. He then closed his eyes again and resumed aimlessly floating around.

In the dark realm, the figure contemplated on what had just happened. For the first time, he had caught sight of the person calling out to him. She was so young like he had expected. And she was always calling out him in anger. But what it did not expect was her being a Horned-One. That surely explained her intense rage. Most children her age weren't so mad and never had the reason to be so mad. And it was her anger that allowed him to meet her for the first time. If it kept up, it would only be a matter of time before her calls would be strong enough.

All it needed to do was leave Mariko to her isolation and anger, leave her to her unknowing calls. Let her get angry and let empower him.

He spoke softly while continuing to aimlessly float in the darkness "Very soon."

Those words did not escape Mariko's ears as she heard it in her prison.

* * *

Well there you have it. Yeah, this was not my most well thought-out fic.

Read and review please. Tell me what you think of it. What did I do wrong? What improvements should I make? Should I continue or leave it as is?


	2. What Dreams May Come

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Elfen Lied. Never did, never will. If I did, the anime would not have ended where it did.**

**A/N 1:** I'd like to thank those who reviewed this fic. Even though it's only a few, it helped. And I was able to find the inspiration and the drive to make this.

**A/N 2: **Done within three hours. Grammatical errors were kept to a minimal.

**A/N 3: **On the small chance that moviefan-92, ElfenLied619 and Beowulf Caverias, well, I hope you guys aren't too upset with what I've typed down in this chapter.

Well here's chapter two. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

It's been months since Mariko's little trip to the Darkness. The little girl never again had that dream… had that nightmare. The little girl never again returned to the Dark Realm. The little girl never again heard that voice. But what the little girl did do again was subconsciously call for help. And her calls were being listened to.

Her calls were always being listened to.

The months went by for Mariko. She never did have that Dark Dream again. But then she was plagued by a new dream. She has had the same dream about ten times already.

The months went by for Mariko. Not that she even had a perception of time. Being in the dark, both literally and figuratively, keeps one from keeping track of time on the outside. Plus no one ever told her the time. Heck, she probably doesn't even know the concept of time and how it works. The little has never even heard of the words "sunrise" and "sunset".

But putting aside the things which Mariko either does or doesn't know, something happened in the facility which, as far as what Mariko knows, has never happened before. There was an escape.

Elder sister Lucy had escape. The supposed Diclonius Queen had escaped from the facility. Now Lucy wasn't the first Diclonuis to break free of her restraints but she was the first to actually escape the damned place.

Mariko had never met Lucy. In fact, the first time Mariko had ever heard of Lucy was when she overheard Saito and a guard talking about it. Okay, that is not entirely true. Saito's conversation with the guard was the first time she heard of Lucy's name.

As a Diclonius, Mariko had a telepathic connection with her fellow Diclonius. As such, Mariko had felt Lucy's presence when she was first brought to the facility and she continued to feel her presence all throughout her stay in the facility.

And then she felt the presence of the very same Diclonius killing several humans within the facility. She felt the malicious and murderous intent. Mariko knew it was the same Diclonius but did not know who it really was. She only made the connection and put two and two together that it was Lucy who somehow escaped when she overheard Saito mention her name while talking about the escape.

Because of Mariko's lack of familiarity of Lucy, she really couldn't be sure if her escape should bring a smile to her face or not. Her childish mentally made her jealous of Lucy's newfound freedom. Yet it gave her hope that escape wasn't impossible and that she too could be free like her elder Diclonius. Plus the fact that a Diclonius giving those filthy humans trouble was a welcomed bonus in Mariko's opinion.

And speaking of her connection to her elder Diclonius, Mariko had learned that some, if not most, of them felt the same as her. Some of them cheered silently. It even raised their hope and morale and their yearning for escape had increased.

There were notable exceptions though. There have always been three notable Diclonius in the facility which were different form the others.

But enough about them.

They are not the center of focus here. Mariko is. Right now, she shut off her connection to her siblings. They were not her concern. In fact, despite their common denominator of having a very bleak and miserable existence, none of the Diclonius had a sense of camaraderie. Each one looked out only for his or herself. Should the moment come of an opportunity to escape, none of them would even think of freeing the others. Mariko was no different. The Diclonius had no solidarity.

The only exception to this would probably be Number 7.

With Saito leaving, Mariko was left to her loneliness and isolation again. Oh how she wished to be free. Oh how she wished for someone to free her. Just waiting for a rescue that may not even come got her mad. It frustrated her. Deluding herself in false and highly unlikely hope. It was irrational anger but what can be expect from a mere child who has never had any sort of guidance.

With nothing better to do, Mariko decided to drift herself to sleep. But she did not sleep for long. Then shortly after falling as sleep, she suddenly heard the voice again after going sometime without hearing from it.

"_I have heard your call"_

Before Mariko could even ponder on those words, she woke up as her ears were suddenly picking up the sounds of heavy gunfire. Screaming expectedly followed right afterwards. Faint sounds of blood splattering on the wall or dripping to the ground were also heard.

'What's happening outside? Did another of my elder siblings escape again?' The little Diclonius thought

The sound of metal tearing and banging was gotten Mariko's attention. If she could guess, it was probably the large metal door that led to her prison. A louder bang rang through her ears. It was the sound of that door slamming to the ground. She heard the guards stationed at her prison fire their guns. The sounds of gunfire ended when the sounds of scream and blood started. Then there was silence.

But that silence did not last long. Whether or not Mariko had expected what happened next to occur was unknown. What happened next was the event of a small hole instantly forming on the wall of her container and light from the outside penetrated through it.

The small hole, no larger than her own fist, appeared to have been made by someone punching through the metal. But that couldn't be right. Her prison was ten inches of the strongest steel. Before Mariko could make any sense to it, two large tears formed from the hole. One went up and the other down. More light seeped in.

Soon enough, her prison was torn apart and large chunks of metal were seemingly tossed aside. Her restraints within the prison were suddenly destroyed. The helmet covering her head was ripped apart. The lights from the outside were bright and Mariko's eyes which were unused to the light ached a little. Instinctively, she covered her eyes with her weak skinny arms.

She tried to see who was responsible for ripping open her prison but saw nothing but light.

She was free from her prison. But she was not free yet. There was still a facility to breakout from.

With whatever strength she had in her legs, she attempted to walk out. Putting one foot before another, she made it out of her ruined prison. Problem is, that was the last amount of strength her legs could muster.

She fell to the ground. Her hands and arms gathering all their strength just to make sure her head would not land hard on the cold metal floor. Ignoring the pain the fall caused and not letting this perfectly good chance of escape go to waste, Mariko started to crawl on the ground. Using whatever power she had to move her frail, little body across the ground.

One arm before another. That's how she went, dragging her legs behind her.

"Eh… look at what they've done to you. So malnourished and weak." Mariko recognized that voice. "You've been reduced to such a horrid state."

It was the voice which had spoken to her not to long ago and it sounded genuinely concern for her.

Looking up and forward, she forced her eyes to resist the light and saw someone she did not expect. She had expected several guards to surround her, point their heavy guns at her and order her to remain still so that she can be restrained and imprisoned again. But that was not the case here at the moment.

Instead, she saw a small figure, probably no older than her, and it was walking towards her. Stopping just one and a half feet away from Mariko, the little Diclonius got a look at whoever she assumed to have been her rescuer.

It was a boy with white hair. The boy's white hair was slightly long that it covered his eyes and ears thus Mariko could not get a good look at his face. The boy's hair also reached the bottom of his neck at the back but Mariko did not know that. Mariko paid no mind to whatever clothes he was possibly wearing. Mariko had no concern for clothes. She's never worn any.

Mariko had not met many humans. But from the way she was treated, she could only conclude that they were all evil people. She readied her Vectors even though the person before her was about the same age and size as her. He was small like her too. But compared to her, he was quite healthy.

But what Mariko noticed about the boy the most was the small and caring smile he had projected towards her.

Mariko had her Vectors up and ready but honestly did not know what to do with him. He was a human. But he was small. Harmless or at least seemingly harmless… like her.

Mariko heard the boy happily chuckle as though he was really happy to see her. With a warm manner of speaking and a comforting voice, the white haired boy held out his hands, equally as small as Mariko's, to the equally small girl.

And he asked "Are you the one calling out to me?"

Mariko still couldn't make sense of it. She paused in confusion. She did not answer and she did not take the boy's hands in her confusion. She just stared at the boy in front of her. Was he really responsible for her newfound freedom?

The light was just too much for her eyes. She could not keep them open anymore. She closed them for a few seconds the relieve them of pain.

But when she opened them again, she found herself still restrained within her intact prison.

"No…" Mariko turned her head left and right frantically "No!" the little girl on the verge of tears "I was free!" She clenched her hands in anger "I was free!" A single tear came from both her eyes and streamed down her cheeks.

"It was just that dream again!" Mariko was aggravated.

That was the new dream that had been plaguing her and that was the 11th time she has dreamt it.

"Even though it's been that many times, I still get fooled by it."

She finally cried "Why do I keep dreaming that dream?"

She had really thought she had been freed. Bottling up a little all those emotions of disappointment and sorrow, the little Diclonius brought to her attention a very important question. It was the one question that Mariko's mind was focused on trying to come up with an answer

'Who was that boy? That boy I keep seeing in my dreams.'

Mariko had recomposed herself in her prison. She had stopped crying.

_"I will see you soon."_ It was the boy's voice again. His voice was filled with enthusiasm.

* * *

Chief Kurama, being left in-charged of recapturing Lucy, looked down at a particular and bleeding Diclonius.

"Papa!" the Diclonius being none other than Number 7 otherwise known as Nana.

"Nana, I have something I want you to do. I want you to help me find Lucy."

The teenager Diclonius girl eagerly nodded.

* * *

Within the Dark Realm, the boy was floating aimlessly. But he wasn't in his fetal position. He was standing up straight. He raised his head a little for no apparent purpose. But perhaps maybe in deep thought. His atypical movement had no apparent downside to him. With him going left and right, up and down and front and back.

"Mmmm…"He pouted and pressed a finger to his chin. Like any other little boy, he spoke with such innocence "Aww, I was so close this time." The boy sounded sincerely disappointed. "But then again, I was so close the last ten times." He chuckled. He was disappointed but not angry.

"My portal… is not the most comprehending one it seems." He sounded jokingly and let down as he playfully and repeatedly bonked his head. Then he clasped his hands and cheerful said "But she keeps calling out to me so I won't have long to wait." He ceased his aimless floating.

He raised his arms joyfully and spun as he sang "My little portal is so cute and pretty. Her hair has no curls but sure is messy. Malnourishment has kept her body thin and tiny. And her calls to me…" He smiled uncharacteristically sinister "make me so happy."

He stopped his dancing and got back to his fetal position. Thus he resumed aimlessly floating in the Dark Realm.

"She keeps calling out to me so I won't have long to wait."

* * *

And that's it for now. I hope you readers found it satisfactory. Comment and Review please. Once again, tell me if I did anything wrong and what I should improve on.


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